(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 620,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.1% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 15, 7:20 pm
Texas Supreme Court sides with Gov. Greg Abbott on mask mandate
Two days after a Dallas appeals court dealt Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a legal setback by upholding Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ order requiring masks in schools and businesses, the Texas Supreme Court shut the mandate down Sunday.
The entirely Republican Court granted a temporary stay at the request of Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“The ban doesn’t prohibit using masks. Anyone who wants to wear a mask can do so, including in schools,” Abbott tweeted Sunday.
Hearings on the mask mandates will continue in lower courts as scheduled, the Court ruled.
“We won’t stop working with parents, doctors, schools, business + others to protect you and intend to win that hearing,” Jenkins tweeted Sunday.
Aug 15, 11:54 am
Nearly 600 patients waiting for hospital beds in Houston
As of Saturday, 575 patients are waiting for a general bed in hospitals in the Houston area. Eighty-seven patients are waiting for an intensive care unit beds.
Hospital officials in Houston said last week that area hospitals with beds had insufficient numbers of nurses to serve them.
Nurses the state was going to surge to the area have yet to arrive, more than two weeks after they were promised.
Gov. Greg Abbott appealed for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of COVID-19 in Texas while two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates in defiance of the governor last week.
As of Saturday, there are 3.3M confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there have been 54,289 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 46.33% of Texans have been fully vaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — With the death toll now nearing 1,300 people and thousands more injured after a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti Saturday morning, the beleaguered nation faces the threat of fast-approaching Tropical Storm Grace potentially exposing an already vulnerable population to a double impact in a matter of days.
Haiti’s Civil Protection agency announced Sunday that the death toll had jumped from more than 700 to at least 1,297. Initial reports indicate there are more than 700 collapsed buildings, including hospitals and schools, at least 3,778 homes destroyed and significant damage to infrastructure and roads.
Grace is forecast to make landfall in Haiti between Aug. 16 to 17.
“The people of Haiti are not only going to have to deal with this earthquake and its aftershocks but also this impending tropical storm,” United States Geological Survey geophysicist William Barnhart, from the Earthquake Hazards Program, said. “It’s honestly just a terrible situation.” Barnhart said there could be thousands of deaths from the disaster.
“The number of fatalities does not always make it out,” he told ABC News. “There’s a lot of time that has to go into recovering individuals from buildings and accessing areas and towns.”
The earthquake, according to USGS, struck about 5 miles north of Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti, a little over 90 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
There are also concerns that the earthquake could exacerbate the island’s COVID-19 infection rate should displaced people be forced into closer confines.
The Haitian government “believes high casualties are probable given the earthquake’s magnitude,” Bocchit Edmond, the country’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
“Emergency responses are underway, and damages are being assessed,” Edmond added, saying destruction is “widespread.”
The embassy is helping to coordinate response efforts between the U.S. and Haitian governments.
Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke to Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry Sunday to express condolences for the disaster, according to a statement from Sherman’s office.
“Deputy Secretary Sherman reiterated our support for Haiti during this challenging time and underscored USAID’s leadership role in supporting U.S. assistance efforts in the aftermath of this tragedy,” the statement read.
The earthquake was virtually the same size and at the same shallow depth as the 2010 quake, and along the exact same fault line — the Enriquillo Plantain Garden — but farther west and in a less-populated region.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is mobilizing government resources to help victims in affected areas and declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country. In a press conference, he said he wouldn’t ask for international help until officials assess the extent of the damages.
“It will be very bad, but maybe not quite as bad as 2010 just because Port-au-Prince is farther away from this one and therefore got less shaking this time,” said Dr. Lucy Jones, an earthquake expert.
She said that about 650,000 people have been exposed to level VII shaking, which the USGS defines as “very strong” and which is powerful enough to topple poorly built structures.
But many of the buildings that potentially would have been at risk from this quake were destroyed by the earthquake 11 years ago or by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, meaning fewer reports of extensive damage now aren’t entirely surprising, Jones added.
Groups like Community Organized Relief Effort are trying to help vaccinate locals to prevent COVID-19 spread.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said the organization’s disaster experts already on the ground in Haiti are assessing damage and humanitarian needs.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed by the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and the Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the earthquake Saturday morning. The president authorized an immediate U.S. response, and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior U.S. official to coordinate this effort.
“In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti this morning,” Biden said in a statement. “We send our deepest condolences to all those who lost a loved one or saw their homes and businesses destroyed.”
“Through USAID, we are supporting efforts to assess the damage and assist efforts to recover those who were injured and those who must now rebuild,” he continued. “The United States remains a close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti, and we will be there in the aftermath of this tragedy.”
Power spoke to Henry, also the acting president of Haiti in the wake of Jovenel Moise’s assassination, Saturday evening about how USAID can assist the country. Earlier, the agency said a disaster assistance response team had been sent to the island.
USAID tweeted Sunday morning that “at the at the request of Haiti’s government” it has “deployed an urban search & rescue team to join our #Haiti earthquake disaster response team. This 65-person deployment brings 52,000 pounds of specialized tools, equipment & medical supplies to assist in search operations.”
While a recent surge in COVID-19 cases has tapered off, the possible displacement of thousands of people has created ripe conditions for a spike in COVID-19 infections, potentially overwhelming an already weak and overstretched health system that will also have to provide assistance to those injured by the earthquake.
Meanwhile, some celebrities and companies are offering aid to Haiti.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka posted on Twitter that she plans to donate her prize winnings to relief efforts in Haiti. “Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on,” she tweeted.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Cupertino would be donating to “assist relief and recovery efforts in the affected communites,” in a Sunday morning tweet.
Celebrity chef José Andrés tweeted Sunday that he and his organization, World Central Kitchen, have been on the ground in Haiti since yesterday providing food.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — United States troops have taken control of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as chaos continues after the Taliban took control of the country.
U.S. troops have reportedly established large barriers and roadblocks on the streets near the airport in an effort to both slow and control the fleeing population.
The world reacts
Leaders around the globe have responded to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was speaking about the race against time to evacuate Brits and Afghans who helped the military when he became overcome with emotion after saying that some people who served the U.K. will not come back.
When asked in an interview with British radio station LBC why he was taking it so personally, he said, “Because I’m a soldier. It’s sad, and the West has done what it’s done, and we have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations.”
Russia’s top envoy on Afghanistan has said Moscow will not rush to recognize the Taliban as the country’s new government.
But the envoy, Zamir Kabulov who oversees Russia’s Afghan policy, said in a radio interview with Echo of Moscow the Taliban had learned its lesson from 20 years ago when the world moved against them as terrorists.
He said the Taliban had promised no Russians would be harmed and that the group’s fighters have now taken Russia’s embassy under protection in Kabul. Russia has not evacuated its embassy so far, though it has pulled out some staff.
Meanwhile, official statements from China lay the groundwork for Beijing recognizing a Taliban government.
Spokesperson Hua Chunying noted that the Taliban said Sunday that the “war in Afghanistan is over” and that they will work to establish an inclusive government and ensure the safety of foreign missions in Afghanistan. Chunying said China expects these statements to be implemented in order to ensure a smooth transition and curb terrorist and criminal acts, so the Afghan people can avoid war and rebuild their country.
China has been wanting to expand their Belt and Road infrastructure initiative into Afghanistan but the U.S.-backed government had been reluctant to commit. China is connected to Afghanistan by a sliver of land called the Wakhan Corridor, which has historically been a well-traveled trade route. It connects to China’s Xinjiang region, and if it were opened, it would provide a better route from Kashgar, China, to Peshawar, Pakistan.
(HOUSTON) — The parents of a toddler who was hit by a foul ball during a 2019 Houston Astros game, fracturing her skull, have reached a settlement with the team, according to the family’s lawyer.
In a petition filed Thursday, parents Jonathan David Scott and Alexandra Colchado claimed that “acts and omissions constituting negligence” caused their daughter to sustain “injuries and damages” during a game at Minute Maid Stadium in Houston on May 29, 2019.
During the fourth inning of the game, their daughter, who was 2 years old at the time, was hit by a ball off the bat of Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr. She suffered a fractured skull and has a permanent brain injury, the family’s lawyer, Richard Mithoff, told ABC News.
Because the lawsuit involves a minor, the settlement has to be formally approved by a judge, according to Mithoff. The court will appoint a neutral lawyer to make a recommendation to the judge “about the fairness of the settlement,” which will be confidential, he said.
Details of the settlement were not made public.
The Astros’ lawyers did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Almora, who now plays for the New York Mets, was seen crying on the field after the ball went into the stands.
Mithoff said they waited until two years after the incident to seek damages to have a better understanding of any lasting medical issues.
“It was a serious injury, a permanent injury to that part of the brain,” Mithoff said. “The primary focus has been on seizures.”
The girl, who is now 4, has been on anti-seizure medication since the incident, Mithoff said. Her last seizure was 22 months ago, he said.
Mithoff said he plans to ask for a hearing date on Monday and hopes the settlement will be fully approved “in a matter of weeks.”
At the time of the 2019 game, Minute Maid Park’s netting reached from the end of one dugout to the other, however, the child was sitting farther down the left-field line. Several months after the incident, the team extended its netting farther down the baselines.
The Astros released a statement to The Washington Post a month after the incident, saying: “The Astros continue to send our thoughts and prayers to the young girl and her family. We continue to respect the family’s request for privacy and have no further comment at this time.”
In January 2020, MLB announced that every team would have extended netting for the upcoming season, following reports of fans getting injured and even killed by foul balls.
The Astros have faced lawsuits over other injuries sustained during games. In 2019, a woman sued the team after she was injured by a T-shirt fired into the crowd. She claimed her left index finger was irreparably damaged. A confidential settlement was reached last year, the Houston Chronicle reported.
(NEW YORK) — Three major U.S. cities struggling to curb a surge in gun violence collectively had at least 64 people wounded and 12 dead, including a 7-year-old girl, in multiple shootings this weekend, according to police.
The shootings in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago came as all three cities have seen sharp increases in the numbers of shootings in 2021.
In Chicago, at least 46 people were shot between 5 p.m. on Friday and Sunday afternoon, four of them fatally, according to the Chicago Police Department. According to police incident reports reviewed by ABC News, 23 of the shootings occurred over just a 4 hour period between 12:26 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, a 7-year-old girl was killed and a 6-year-old girl was seriously wounded when someone opened fire on a parked vehicle they were sitting in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side, police said. The 7-year-old was shot in the chest and later died at a hospital.
The 6-year-old girl was also shot in the chest and right armpit and was in serious but stable condition at Loyola University Medical Center Sunday evening, police said.
Police were working to identify the shooter or shooters involved in the incident. Police did not comment on a possible motive.
More than 250 children have been shot and 32 killed in Chicago this year, according to police data obtained by ABC station WLS.
Prior to this weekend, more than 2,123 people had been shot in Chicago this year, which is a 12% increase from the same time period in 2020, according to police department crime statistics. Before this weekend, Chicago has recorded 478 homicides, a 2% increase over last year at this time.
A shooting that occurred Friday night on the Eisenhower Expressway on the city’s West Side left one person dead and two others critically wounded. Illinois State Police said the three victims were in a car on Interstate 290 when a vehicle pulled up alongside them and someone inside opened fire.
In a shooting around 12:36 a.m. on Sunday, a woman and three men, ranging in age from 30 to 45, were shot and wounded as they stood outside a building in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the city’s South Side, police said. The victims told police they did not see where the shots came from, according to an incident report.
Just after 2 a.m. Sunday, three teenagers, the youngest 15, were shot and wounded while standing outside a gas station in the city’s Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, police said. About 20 minutes later, three other people were shot while traveling in a car in the Mayfair neighborhood in northwest Chicago, police said.
The shootings in Chicago followed last weekend’s violence, which saw 73 people shot in the city, 11 fatally.
Chicago police Officer Ella French was among those gunned down last weekend when she and her two partners pulled over a car for having expired tags. One of French’s partners, a 39-year-old officer, was shot in the eye and remains in a hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodge in his brain, police said. Two brothers were arrested and charged in French’s slaying.
The Chicago Police Department has launched several programs this summer in an attempt to curb shootings and reduce the number of illegal guns on the streets.
Last month, Police Superintendent David Brown assembled a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city of Chicago.
11 people shot, 5 fatally in Philadelphia
Entering the weekend, 1,333 people had been shot in Philadelphia this year, a 19% increase from the same period a year ago, according to police department crime statistics. By the end of Friday, the city had recorded 329 homicides, a 26% increase from the same time period in 2020, the data shows.
“We need to stop this,” Philadelphia resident and retired Marine Jamal Johnson told ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia.
The weekend gun violence came as Johnson and a group of supporters are marching to Washington D.C. to draw attention to the escalating number of shootings and killings in their city. Johnson calls his action the “Stop Killing us March” and hopes to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus when he reaches the U.S. Capitol later this month.
“I would personally like them to encourage (Philadelphia) Mayor (Jim) Kenney to declare a state of emergency in Philadelphia due to gun violence,” Johnson said. “Most of all to save the lives of our children.”
Kenney said during a news conference last month that the city allocated over $150 million in its fiscal year 2022 budget to address gun violence. He said he has spoken to President Joe Biden “on the urgent need for new and enhanced approaches” to combat the problem.
“An emergency or disaster declaration would not change the direction of this work,” the mayor said.
In the weekend homicides in Philadelphia, a 25-year-old man was shot multiple times on a street in the Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood of North Philadelphia about 9 p.m. on Saturday, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Einstein Medical Center and pronounced dead.
Around 5 a.m. Saturday, a man was found shot in the parking lot of a gas station in the Wynnefield neighborhood in the northwest part of Philadelphia police said. The man, who was not named by police, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A 30-year-old man died after being shot multiple times around 12:44 a.m. Saturday on a street in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia, police said. And a 46-year-old man died after being shot in the chest around 1:36 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Rite Aid in southwest Philadelphia.
No arrests have been made in any of the homicides, police said.
More than 1,100 shot in New York City this year
In New York City, where more than 1,100 people have been shot this year, an 11% increase from a year ago, police said 15 more people were shot, three fatally, in 11 separate incidents on Friday night alone. The three homicides occurred in just 4 1/2 hours.
The deadly violence started about 12:20 a.m. on Saturday when police discovered a man lying next to a motorcycle with a bullet wound to the head in the Woodlawn neighborhood of the city’s Bronx borough, according to the New York Police Department. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
About 40 minutes later, a 38-year-old man was shot in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of the city’s Queens borough, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Just after 4 a.m. on Saturday, a 27-year-old man was shot dead while standing on a street in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, police said. The shooting also left a 23-year-old man wounded.
No arrests have been made in the New York homicides.
Among the non-fatal New York shootings, four men were wounded just after midnight Saturday at the Louis Armstrong Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the city’s Brooklyn borough.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
St. Louis 7, Kansas City 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 11, Detroit 0
Boston 6, Baltimore 2
Texas 7, Oakland 4
Minnesota 5, Tampa Bay 4
NY Yankees 5, Chi White Sox 3
LA Angels 3, Houston 1
Toronto 8, Seattle 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Milwaukee 2, Pittsburgh 1
Atlanta 6, Washington 5
Miami 4, Chi Cubs 1
Cincinnati 7, Philadelphia 4
San Francisco 5, Colorado 2
San Diego 8, Arizona 2
LA Dodgers 14, NY Mets 4
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PRESEASON
Indianapolis 21, Carolina 18
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Connecticut 80, Dallas 59
Chicago 87, Seattle 85 (OT)
Phoenix 92, Atlanta 81
Las Vegas 84, Washington 83
Minnesota 88, New York 78
Los Angeles 75, Indiana 70
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Atlanta 1, Los Angeles FC 0
Chicago 1, Columbus 0
Nashville 5, D.C. United 2
Seattle 6, Portland 2
This morning, Reba McEntire kicks off the week by revealing the 2021 inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Having grown up singing classic country songs in his family’s band, who better to predict who may be going in than die-hard fan Michael Ray? Though only three additions will be revealed — and only two of those will be artists — the “Whiskey and Rain” hitmaker sees quite a few deserving people.
“If we look back, that class of ’89 changed everything as far as going into the nineties,” Michael reflects. “You had Clint Black, I think he’s missing. I think Travis Tritt‘s missing. I think you go back to John Conlee.”
“I also think there’s a lot of females like Patty Loveless,” Michael continues. “I don’t think Trisha Yearwood‘s in yet. You hear those songs… ‘She’s in Love with the Boy’… Come on, man. That’s the pinnacle of nineties female country songs.”
For Michael, there’s one possibility that’s even more personal.
“One I would love to see, because I think he’s been overlooked a lot in his career — and he was a big friend to me and a mentor to me and we lost him last year — and that’s Joe Diffie,” he says. “I think the nineties wouldn’t be the nineties without Joe.”
“I think he had a string of hits and one of the best voices that we had in this genre, and I would love to see him in there someday,” Michael adds.
Typically, inductees officially join the Hall during an October Medallion Ceremony, though the 2020 honorees — Hank Williams Jr., Marty Stuart, and Dean Dillon — haven’t yet had their big night because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is Johnny Depp being boycotted by Hollywood? That’s what he seems to believe based on a recent interview.
Speaking with The Sunday Times about his new film, Minamata, which was recently released in the U.K. with a U.S. date still pending, Depp claimed that Hollywood has boycotted him and alluded that the industry’s focus on his personal life is why the film hasn’t received a North American release date.
In the film, Depp portrays photojournalist Eugene Smith, who travels back to Japan to document the catastrophic effects of mercury poisoning on the countries costal communities.
“We looked these people in the eyeballs and promised we would not be exploitative. That the film would be respectful,” he said of Minamata, according to Deadline. “I believe that we’ve kept our end of the bargain, but those who came in later should also maintain theirs.”
“Some films touch people. And this affects those in Minamata and people who experience similar things,” he expressed. “And for anything…For Hollywood’s boycott of me? One man, one actor in an unpleasant and messy situation, over the last number of years?”
After trailing off, he added, “But, you know, I’m moving towards where I need to go to make all that…To bring things to light.”
Depp has been embroiled in years of legal battles, including a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard and a libel lawsuit against the publisher of The Sun.
Minamata was originally slated for a February release in both the U.K. and the U.S., however they were both postponed. The U.K. has since released the film on Friday, but a U.S. release has yet to be announced.
DJ Khaled and his family are “all good now” after recovering from COVID-19.
Late last week, the music producer took to Instagram to thank everyone for their support while battling the virus.
“Thank you for your calls and prayers! My family and I recovered from COVID and we’re all good now!!” he wrote in a text note.
Khaled also shared photos and videos of his family, which includes sons Asahd, 4, and Aalam, 18 months, who he shares with wife Nicole Tuck.
Alongside the series of snapshots, Khaled reiterated his thankfulness in the caption, writing, “Please be safe out there! Please take care of yourself.”
“Thank you to DOCTORS ,thank you Dovi thank you to my Queen thank you Rosa thank you to my WE THE BEST team my management ROCNATION and My partners at EPIC RECORDS for holding me up while Me and my family focused on recovery,” he added.
It is unknown when the “Let It Go” artist and his family tested positive.
Heart‘s Ann and Nancy Wilson have both been busy with solo musical projects since the band last toured in 2019, but Nancy says she thinks there’s a good chance that the Rock & Roll Hall Fame group will hit the road again, possibly as early as next year.
“[Ann and I] don’t…speak real directly really often these days, but I think she wants to do [another tour],” the Heart guitarist tells ABC Audio. “And I want to do it. She knows that I want to do it.”
Nancy continues, “I think it’s just, you know, the devil’s in the details about who’s in the band and…making all the choices, because we’re partners in the project, so, you know, prerequisite decisions have to be made first.”
With the two sisters recording and releasing their own solo projects lately, they now each have backing groups. With that in mind, Nancy notes, “To me, the most important thing is who’s in the [Heart touring] band. So, we’re gonna figure it out.”
While no definite plans are in place for a new Heart trek, Nancy reveals that Live Nation has made an offer to the band for a 2022 tour.
Meanwhile, Nancy, who released a debut solo studio album titled You and Me in May, will play a special orchestral show with her solo band and the Seattle Symphony on October 30 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
Nancy tells ABC Audio that she feels it would “be a sweet thing” if Heart also lined up some concerts with orchestral accompaniment.
